A History of the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park

Brock, Julia

In July of 1942, the Estes Park Trail eulogized the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps in Rocky Mountain National Park- in that year, the last remaining Park camps, NP-11-C in Hollowell Park and NP-12-C near Grand Lake, shut down operations and the CCC left the area permanently. The Trail editors noted that CCC contributions to the Park were too extensive to list in detail, but added that, "their work will long live after them in the many miles of trails they built in the wilderness, for the acres of landscaping they carried on to aid Nature healing up old construction scars and to beautify surroundings about Park buildings." The Trail could not have been more accurate in their assessments of the program - the Civilian Conservation Corps did nothing less than propel Rocky Mountain National Park into a new era of tourism and recreation. Their labor not only provided long-needed maintenance for trails, roads, and buildings, it modernized Park facilities and provided new avenues of recreation for the evergrowing tourist population entering the Park. When the program ended in 1942, it was not until several decades later that Rocky Mountain, and all other national parks, had access to resources that matched those allotted in the 1930s. The CCC was not the only New Deal program that contributed to the Park's growth during the depression decade. The Public Works Administration (PWA) also provided funds for the Park to contract for labor to build and reconstruct roads and buildings. Similarly, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) briefly employed local men on projects within Park boundaries. But neither of these programs captured national attention and received the ubiquitous popularity in the same way that the CCC did. The program, with its emphasis on exposing young men to rugged camp life and hard work, won the acceptance of many who felt it was an effective way to productively engage unemployed youth. Still today, the Corps remains as one of the most beloved of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "alphabet soup" of New Deal organizations, particularly with veterans of the program. The CCC did deliver impressive results- it gave youth from underprivileged families guaranteed nourishment, shelter, and pay for themselves and to help support their families. But it was also a complicated organization with idealistic goals, an occasionally ineffective governing hierarchy, and ambivalent messages for those young men who chose to enlist. For their part, the enrollees reacted to their time in the program differently; many found great value in the CCC but others chose to leave before their enlistment periods were complete. The diverse experiences of administrators and enrollees alike are important when exploring the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park; it is these experiences that provide the context for the tangible legacy of the Corps in the Park. To attempt to honor the voices of all the human actors who worked to create a better and more accessible recreational space through the Civilian Conservation Corps, this study is divided into three parts: the first chapter is devoted to CCC administrators and their objectives for the enrollees; the second explores enrollee responses to the program; the third highlights the work that actually took place in Rocky Mountain.

A History of the CCC in Rocky Mountain National Park

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